Memory management of data processing systems

ABSTRACT

Techniques for memory management of a data processing system are described herein. According to one embodiment, a memory usage monitor executed by a processor of a data processing system monitors memory usages of groups of programs running within a memory of the data processing system. In response to determining that a first memory usage of a first group of the programs exceeds a first predetermined threshold, a user level reboot is performed in which one or more applications running within a user space of an operating system of the data processing system are terminated and relaunched. In response to determining that a second memory usage of a second group of the programs exceeds a second predetermined threshold, a system level reboot is performed in which one or more system components running within a kernel space of the operating system are terminated and relaunched.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 14/973,371 filed Dec. 17, 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S.provisional patent application No. 62/171,821, filed Jun. 5, 2015, whichis incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to data processingsystems. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate toresource management of a data processing system.

BACKGROUND

An operating system (OS), such as iOS™ or OS X™ from Apple Inc®, orMicrosoft Windows™ from Microsoft®, is a collection of software thatmanages device hardware resources and provides common services forcomputer programs such as application software. Application software canbe considered to be the computer program that causes a computer or otherdata processing system to perform useful tasks in response to userrequests or other requests or other inputs. A specific instance ofapplication software is called a software application, applicationprogram, application or app, which are used interchangeably herein.Application programs usually require an operating system to function.

As more and more apps and services are becoming available for small ormobile devices (e.g., a smartphone), the number of applications runningat the same time in a single device has increased significantly.Moreover, many of these applications are not terminated or quit by auser after a user finishes using them so they continue to run andtherefore continue to use system resources such as memory (e.g. volatilememory such as DRAM) even when they are no longer being used.Furthermore, idle background and foreground applications, while they maynot use processing or computation resources, such as one or moremicroprocessors, they often use memory resources such as RAM while theyare idle and not in use. These multiple applications or processes in thesame device compete with each other by sharing the same memory resourcesand computation resources embedded within a device, and the operatingsystem performs resource management, such as memory management, to dealwith resource contention in concurrent computing. Memory management tocontrol use of memory by running or idle applications has includedtechniques to terminate applications based on one or more indications ofuse of memory (e.g. DRAM) in a data processing system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a data processing systemaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a data structure representing aset of memory management rules according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 3A-3C are flow diagrams illustrating a process for memorymanagement of a data processing system according to certain embodimentsof the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a memory management system of adata processing system according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating individual memory usages ofprograms according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a data processing systemaccording to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described withreference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings willillustrate the various embodiments. The following description anddrawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construedas limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the presentinvention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to provide a concise discussion ofembodiments of the present inventions.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarilyall refer to the same embodiment.

According to one aspect of the invention, memory management of a dataprocessing system is performed at multiple levels. In one embodiment, anoverall memory usage of a predetermined set of programs (e.g.,applications, daemons, system components of an operating system) ismonitored. When the overall memory usage of the set of programs exceedsa first predetermined threshold, a first memory usage reduction actionor operation is performed. When the overall memory usage of the set ofprograms exceeds a second predetermined threshold, a second memory usagereduction action or operation is performed. For example, when theoverall memory usage of a set of one or more programs exceeds a firstwatermark, a user space reboot may be performed, in which user levelprograms may be terminated and relaunched. When the overall memory usageexceeds a second watermark (which may be higher than the firstwatermark), a system level reboot may be performed, in which the entireor a significant portion of programs running within a data processingsystem may be terminated and relaunched. The reboots may cause certainmemory used by certain programs (e.g., memory leaks) to be released toreduce the overall memory usage. The reboots may be performed based onthe overall memory usage of the predetermined set of programs, eventhough the individual memory usage of an individual one of the programsmay not exceed its corresponding threshold.

According to another aspect of the invention, certain programs orcomponents may be grouped into different groups. Each of the groups maybe associated with a different memory usage threshold, which may be userconfigurable. Some of the programs or components in different groups maybe overlapped, dependent upon the specific user configuration. Thememory usage of these groups may be monitored in view of theirrespective memory usage thresholds. When a memory usage of a group ofone or more programs or components exceeds its corresponding memoryusage threshold, a preconfigured memory reduction action correspondingto that group may be performed. The memory reduction action may also beuser configurable. The groups of programs or components may include agroup of user level components, a group of kernel level components, anda group of system application level components. A memory reductionaction may include a specific level of reboots such as user levelreboot, system level reboot, and system application level reboot.

According to another aspect of the invention, the memory usages ofindividual programs are also monitored, where each of the programs isassociated with multiple levels of memory usage thresholds dependentupon its operating state or operating status. In one embodiment, amemory usage and an operating state of each program are monitored bymonitoring logic of an operating system. When a memory usage of aprogram exceeds a first predetermined threshold (e.g., high watermark)that is associated with the program and the program is in an activestate, a first memory usage reduction action is performed on theprogram. When the memory usage of the program exceeds a secondpredetermined threshold (e.g., low watermark) associated with theprogram and the program is in an inactive state, a second memory usagereduction action is performed on the program.

According to a further aspect of the invention, the time of certaintransactions (e.g., inter-process call (IPC) transaction such as an XPC™transaction of iOS available from Apple Inc.) performed by a program istracked. If a program initiates a predetermined type of transactions, atimer or a timer object may be used to track how long the program hasbeen active with that transaction. If the time exceeds a predeterminedthreshold, a memory usage reduction action may be performed on theprogram, such as, for example, forcing the program to transition from anactive state to an inactive state. Alternatively, the program may beterminated.

According to a further aspect of the invention, when a user of a dataprocessing system is asleep, e.g., no user interaction with the systemis detected for a period of time, the system examines whether there aresome events that still consume unnecessary memory or other resources. Ifso, a memory reduction action may also be performed such as terminatingany program that the user typically would not use when there is no userinteraction detected. For example, if there is no user interactiondetected for a predetermined period of time, an application launcherdaemon may be terminated, since it is less likely the user would launchany program at the moment. Furthermore, when a maintenance action (e.g.,reboot while the user is asleep) is performed, the system may examineone or more flags or one or more data members of one or more datastructures stored at various storage locations to determine whether theflags have been set to a predetermined value, for example, by the useror by a manufacturer or distributor of the system. If the flags havebeen set to the predetermined value, the user may be notified that themaintenance action has been performed, for example, by displaying amessage or sending a message to a user's inbox; otherwise, the user willnot be notified. The flag may be set to the predetermined value so thatthe user will not be disrupted by the maintenance action, as the usermay prefer not to know about the maintenance action.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a memory management system of adata processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 1, system 100 represents any kind of data processingsystems, such as, for example, a server, a desktop (e.g., iMac™available from Apple Inc®. of Cupertino, Calif.), a laptop (e.g.,MacBook™), a tablet (e.g., iPad™), a server, a mobile phone (e.g.,iPhone™), a media player (e.g., iPod™ or iPod Touch™), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a Smartwatch (e.g., Apple Watch™), a personalcommunicator, a gaming device, a network router or hub, a wirelessaccess point (AP) or repeater, a set-top box (e.g., Apple TV™ box), or acombination thereof.

In one embodiment, system 100 memory manager 101 and memory usagemonitor 102 executed by processing resources (e.g., processor(s) 160).Processing resources may present one or more processors or processorcores. A physical processor typically refers to an integrated circuit,which potentially includes any number of other processing elements, suchas cores or hardware threads. A core often refers to logic located on anintegrated circuit capable of maintaining an independent architecturalstate, where each independently maintained architectural state isassociated with at least some dedicated execution resources. A processormay be a general-purpose processor such as a central processing unit(CPU).

Memory manager 101 and memory usage monitor 102 may be a part of anoperating system (OS) loaded in memory 150 (e.g., volatile or systemmemory) and executed by the processing resources within the system. Anoperating system is a collection of software that manages computerhardware resources and provides common services for computer programs.The operating system is an essential component of the system software ina computer system. Application programs usually require an operatingsystem to function. Amongst many functionalities of an operating system,scheduling is the method by which threads, processes or data flows aregiven access to system resources (e.g. processor time, communicationsbandwidth). This is usually done to load balance and share systemresources effectively or achieve a target quality of service. Inaddition, an operating system may further include other core components,such as a scheduler, a device manager, a kernel, etc. In order not tounnecessarily obscure embodiments of the present invention, thesecomponents are not shown herein. An operating system may be any kind ofoperating systems, such as, for example, iOS™ or OS X™ from Apple®,Android™ from Google®, Windows™ from Microsoft®, or other operatingsystems (e.g., UNIX, LINUX, real-time or embedded operating systems).

In one embodiment, memory usage monitor 102 is configured to monitormemory usages of a variety of software programs loaded and runningwithin memory 150, such as, for example, applications 111, daemons 112,and other system components 113 (e.g., kernel components) of theoperating system. Applications 111 may be user applications that aredownloaded and installed by a user of system 100 or alternatively,preloaded applications by a vendor or manufacturer of system 100 (e.g.,system applications). Daemons 112 may be helper applications that areconfigured to help or coordinate communications between applications 111and other system components 113 of the operating system.

According to one embodiment, each of applications or processes 111-113(collectively referred to as programs hereafter) may be executed withina respective dedicated or isolated operating environment, such as asandboxed environment as a separate process address space. A processaddress space refers to a virtual address space or address space that isthe set of ranges of virtual addresses that an operating system makesavailable to a process. The range of virtual addresses usually starts ata low address and can extend to the highest address allowed by thecomputer's instruction set architecture. This provides several benefits,one of which is, if each process is given a separate address space,security through process isolation.

In one embodiment, based on the memory usages monitored by memorymonitor 102, memory manager 101 performs a resource management actionsuch as a memory usage reduction action on any of applications 111,daemons 112, and system components 113 based on a set of memorymanagement rules 103, which defines certain actions to be taken inresponse to certain conditions (e.g., memory usage levels) as shown inFIG. 2. For example, if it is determined that the memory usage of any orall of applications 111, daemons 112, and system components 113 exceedsa certain level, based on memory management rules 103, memory manager101 may cause program launcher 104 or other logic to terminate aspecific program or to reboot the system (e.g., user space reboot and/orsystem level reboot).

In addition, system 100 further includes a persistent storage device 170(e.g., hard disk or other non-volatile storage devices) to store userdata 121, applications 111, system software 122 (e.g., operatingsystem), and memory management rules 103. Any of applications 111 andsystem software 122 can be loaded into memory 150 and executed byprocessor(s) 160. A user can store any user data, such as email files,user files, as well as other user or system settings of system 100(e.g., reboot notification flag(s)).

According to one embodiment of the invention, memory usage monitor 102monitors an overall memory usage of a set of predetermined programs, inthis example, applications 111, daemons 112, and system components 113.When the overall memory usage of the set of programs exceeds a firstpredetermined threshold, memory manager 101 performs a first memoryusage reduction action based on memory management rules 103. When theoverall memory usage of the set of programs exceeds a secondpredetermined threshold, a second memory usage reduction action isperformed based on memory management rules 103.

For example, based on memory management rules 103 as shown as an examplein FIG. 2, when the overall memory usage exceeds a first watermark,memory manager 101 may instructs program launcher 104 or other rebootlogic to perform a user level reboot. When the overall memory usageexceeds a second watermark (which may be higher than the firstwatermark), memory manager 101 may instructs program launcher 104 orother reboot logic to perform a system level reboot. A user level rebootrefers to a reboot in which only certain programs running within a userspace of an operating system may be terminated and reloaded, whileprograms running within a kernel space of the operating system may notbe terminated and launched. A system level reboot refers to a reboot inwhich most of the programs, including those running within the userspace and kernel space, may be terminated and reloaded. A reboot maycause certain memory used or occupied by certain programs (e.g., memoryleaks) to be released to reduce the overall memory usage. The rebootsmay be performed based on the overall memory usage of the predeterminedset of programs, even though the individual memory usage of anindividual one of the programs may not exceed a specific memory usagethreshold that is associated with the specific program.

According to one embodiment, dependent upon memory management rules 103,a diagnostic report may also be generated and transmitted to apredetermined destination (e.g., a remote data collection server). Thediagnostic report may include information collected from at least someof the programs concerning their memory usages, for example, fordebugging or diagnostic purposes.

According to another embodiment, the reboots may be configured in atleast two stages. When the overall memory usage exceeds the firstpredetermined threshold, a user level/space reboot is performed. Afterthe user space reboot is performed, memory monitor 102 measures theoverall kernel memory usage of at least the kernel components of theoperating system to determine whether the overall kernel memory usageexceeds a third predetermined threshold. If so, the system reboot isthen performed accordingly.

According to one embodiment of the invention, certain programs orcomponents may be grouped into different groups. Each of the groups maybe associated with a different memory usage threshold, which may be userconfigurable and stored as part of memory management rules 103. Some ofthe programs or components in different groups may be overlapped,dependent upon the specific user configuration. The memory usage ofthese groups may be monitored by memory usage monitor 102 in view oftheir respective memory usage thresholds. When a memory usage of a groupof one or more programs or components exceeds its corresponding memoryusage threshold, memory manager 101 performs a preconfigured memoryreduction action corresponding to that group. The memory reductionaction may also be user configurable. The groups of programs orcomponents may include a group of user level components, a group ofkernel level components, and a group of system application levelcomponents. Alternatively, a user can configure a group that may includea user program, kernel level component, and/or a system application. Amemory reduction action may include a specific level of reboots such asuser level reboot, system level reboot, and system application levelreboot.

A user program refers to a program that is installed by a user. A systemapplication refers to an application or program that authorized andsigned by a provider of an operating system. For example, a systemapplication may be an application that is bundled and shipped with theoperating system. Typically, a user application and a system applicationare running within a user space of an operating system. A kernel levelcomponent refers to a software component that is running within a kernelspace of the operating system, such as daemons. Amongst the user spaceprograms, some may be associated with a higher memory usage thresholdthan others (e.g., foreground applications). According to oneembodiment, each system daemon may have its own memory usage threshold.

According to one embodiment, when the memory usage of a first group(e.g., a group of user level components) exceeds a first predeterminedthreshold (e.g., a user level threshold), memory manager 101 causes afirst predetermined memory reduction action (e.g., a user level reboot)to be performed. When the memory usage of a second group (e.g., a groupof kernel level components) exceeds a second predetermined threshold(e.g., a kernel level threshold), memory manager 101 causes a secondpredetermined memory reduction action (e.g., a system level reboot) tobe performed.

According to another embodiment, a reboot, either a user space reboot ora system level reboot, may be performed only if there is no userinteraction with system 100 for a predetermined period of time (e.g.,asleep). In some situations, dependent upon the specific configurationof memory management rules 103, instead of rebooting, if there is nouser interaction for a while, program launcher or daemon 104 (e.g.,Springboard) may be terminated. The rationale behind it is that sincethe user is asleep, there is no program to be launched for a while andthus there is no need for program launcher 104 to be running. That is,the system may perform any necessary memory reduction actions in anattempt to reduce the overall memory usage of the programs. Only if theoverall memory usage is still too high, the reboot(s) may then beperformed.

FIG. 3A is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory managementof a data processing system according to one embodiment of theinvention. Process 300 may be performed by processing logic thatincludes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software(e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or acombination thereof. For example, process 300 may be performed by memorymanager 101 and/or memory monitor 102 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3A,at block 301, processing logic monitors the overall memory usage of apredetermined set of programs (e.g., applications, daemons, systemcomponents) that are running in the system memory of a data processingsystem. At block 302, it is determined whether the overall memory usageexceeds a first predetermined threshold. If so, at block 302, processinglogic performs a user space reboot, in which at least some programs thatare running within a user space of an operating system are terminatedand reloaded, without having to terminating and reload a program runningin a kernel space of the operating system. After the user space reboot,at block 304, processing logic determines overall memory usage of theprograms or only some kernel space programs. If the overall memory usageexceeds a second predetermined threshold at block 305, processing logicperforms a system level reboot at block 306, in which most of theprograms will be terminated and reloaded.

Note that in the embodiment as shown in FIG. 3A, the system level rebootis performed only if the overall memory usage is still too high afterthe user space reboot. According to another embodiment, the system levelreboot or the user space reboot may be performed dependent upon thespecific overall memory usage at the point in time. For example, if theoverall memory usage is above a high watermark, the system level rebootmay be performed without performing the user space reboot. If theoverall memory usage is above a low watermark but below the highwatermark, the user space reboot is then performed.

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory managementof a data processing system according to alternative embodiment of theinvention. Process 350 may be performed by processing logic thatincludes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software(e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or acombination thereof. For example, process 350 may be performed by memorymanager 101 and/or memory monitor 102 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3B,at block 351, processing logic monitors memory usages of groups ofcomponents of a data processing system. Each group is associated with aspecific memory usage threshold. At block 352, processing logic detectsthat a memory usage of a first group of components (e.g., user levelcomponents) exceeds a first predetermined memory usage thresholdcorresponding to the first group. In response, at block 353, processinglogic causes a first predetermined memory reduction action (e.g., userlevel reboot) to be performed. At block 354, processing logic detectsthat a memory usage of a second group of components (e.g., system orkernel level components) exceeds a second predetermined memory usagethreshold corresponding to the second group. In response, at block 355,processing logic causes a second predetermined memory reduction action(e.g., system level reboot) to be performed.

FIG. 3C is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory managementof a data processing system according to another embodiment of theinvention. Process 380 may be performed by processing logic thatincludes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software(e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or acombination thereof. For example, process 380 may be performed by memorymanager 101 and/or memory monitor 102 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3C,at block 381, processing logic monitors memory usages of groups ofcomponents of a data processing system, including user level components,kernel level components, and system application components. At block382, processing logic determines whether the memory usage of the userlevel components exceeds a user level threshold. If so, at block 383,processing logic determines whether the memory usage of the kernel levelcomponents exceeds a kernel level threshold. If so, at block 384,processing logic causes the data processing system to perform a systemlevel reboot. During the system level reboot, all of the components suchas hardware and the kernel of an operating system may be reset.

If it is determined at block 383 that the memory usage of the kernellevel components does not exceed the kernel level threshold, processinglogic causes the data processing system to perform a user level rebootat block 387. During the user level reboot, all user space applicationsor processes may be restarted. If it is determined at block 382 that thememory usage of the user level components does not exceed the user levelthreshold, processing logic determines whether the memory usage of thesystem application components exceeds a system application levelthreshold at block 385. If so, at block 386, processing logic causes thedata processing system to perform a system application level reboot, inwhich the system applications will be terminated and relaunched. In oneembodiment, during the system application reboot, all of the userapplications and the system main processes running at the user space(e.g., launch module) may be restarted.

In addition to the memory management based on an overall memory usage ofa set of programs, a memory management function is also performed basedon an individual memory usage of an individual program. Some of theprograms may be associated with or assigned with multiple memory usagethresholds corresponding to different operating states, statuses,events, or conditions. When an application operates in a certain stateand its memory usage satisfies a certain threshold corresponding to thatstate, a memory usage reduction action corresponding to that stateand/or threshold is performed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a memory management system of adata processing system according to another embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 4, similar to system 100 of FIG. 1, system 400includes memory usage monitor 102 (which is loaded in memory 150 andexecuted by processor(s) 160) to monitor memory usages of applications111, daemons 112, and system components 113. In response to the memoryusage data provided by memory monitor 102, memory manager 101 performs acertain memory management action based on memory management rules 103,as described above.

In addition, according to one embodiment, system 400 includes a programstate monitor 401 loaded in memory 150 and executed by processor(s) 160to monitor operating states of programs 111-113. In one embodiment,program state monitor 401 can determine whether a particular program isactive or inactive based on the activities of the program. For example,if a program opens a communication session with another component (e.g.,IPC or XPC communication session), the program is considered as active.In another example, if a program operates in a foreground, it may beconsidered as active; otherwise, it may be considered as inactive.Whether a program is considered as active vs. inactive under certaincircumstances may be determined based on the type, role, or accessprivilege of the program. One program may be considered active whileanother program may be considered inactive under the same circumstances,dependent upon memory management rules 103 associated with theindividual programs. The memory management rules 103 of a program may beconfigured by an administrator of the data processing system oralternatively, they may be automatically generated based on metadata orprofile of the program (e.g., resource entitlement and/or resourcebudget), when the program is installed or launched.

According to one embodiment of the invention, memory usage monitor 102monitors a memory usage of an individual program (e.g., daemon 112).Program state monitor 401 monitors an operating state of the program.Based on the data received from memory usage monitor 102 and programstate monitor 401, when the memory usage of the program exceeds a firstpredetermined threshold (e.g., high watermark) that is associated withthe program and the program is in an active state, memory manager 101performs a first memory usage reduction action on the program. When thememory usage of the program exceeds a second predetermined threshold(e.g., low watermark) associated with the program and the program is inan inactive state, a second memory usage reduction action is performedon the program.

When a program operates in an active state, in general, it consumes morememory. Likewise, when the program operates in an inactive state, itconsumes less memory. By maintaining a high watermark and a lowwatermark, memory manager 101 can determine whether there is a memoryleak of the program early on. FIG. 5A shows a typical memory usage of aprogram according one embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5A,when the program is in an active state 511, its memory usage is usuallyhigher. When the program is in an inactive state 512, its memory usageis usually lower. In this example, this program has been associated withassigned with a first threshold 501 as a high watermark and a secondthreshold 502 as a low watermark. During a normal operation, the memoryusage of the program should be below threshold 501 when it is in anactive state 511. Likewise, the memory usage of the program should bebelow threshold 502 when it is in an inactive state 512.

If the memory usage of the program is above threshold 501 while in anactive state, a first memory usage reduction action is performed.Similarly, when the memory usage of the program is above threshold 502while in an inactive state, a second memory usage reduction action isperformed. The first and second memory usage reduction actions may bethe same or different dependent upon the specific configuration, such asmemory management rules 103. By monitoring the memory usage of a programin view of the high watermark and low watermark, a potential memory leakmay be detected before more damage to an operating system occurs. Asshown in FIG. 5B, the memory usage of a program while it is inactive istrending higher and exceeding threshold 512. This may indicate that theprogram may have a memory leak and a memory usage reduction actionshould be performed before it causes further damage to the system.

A memory usage reduction action can be a variety of actions. Forexample, memory manager 101 may force the program to transition from anactive state to an inactive state to reduce memory usage. The programmay be terminated and reloaded. Memory manager 101 may also communicatewith the program via an API to modify a functionality or behavior of theprogram to consume less memory. Memory manager 101 may disassociate orterminate a helper process or an extension associated with the programwithout or before terminating the program.

As described above, the memory management can be performed based on anoverall memory usage of programs at a global level and at an individualprogram level. In one embodiment, the memory management can alsoperformed on a coalition of programs or processes level. The total oroverall memory usage of all programs in a coalition is monitored and amemory usage reduction operation is performed if the total memory usageof the coalition exceeds a certain threshold. A coalition of programsrefers to a group or bundle of programs that are related orcommunicating with each other for a particular purpose or event.

A coalition of programs includes at least one host program and one ormore other associated programs, such as a helper process, an extension,a library, etc. The host program can launch or cause a second program tobe launched, where the second program will be added to the coalition.For example, a host program may be a Web browser which can launch asocial network application. The social network application may furtherinclude an extension to help the browser to create a post in thecorresponding social network. These programs are considered as part ofthe coalition. The total memory usage of all of these components in thecoalition is monitored. When the total memory usage of a coalitionexceeds a predetermined threshold, a memory usage reduction operation isperformed on the programs of the coalition. Some programs within thecoalition may be terminated prior to the host program. In the exampleabove, the extension may be terminated first to determine whether thememory usage has been brought down to an acceptable level. If not, thesocial network application is then terminated prior to terminating thehost program. In one embodiment, a memory usage reduction operation maybe performed on the programs based on the priorities or roles of theprograms. For example, an idle application may be terminated beforeterminating a background application, which may be terminated before anextension, a foreground application, an operating system component, anda program launcher in order.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.Process 600 may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware(e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on anon-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination thereof. Forexample, process 600 may be performed by memory manager 101, memorymonitor 102, and/or program state monitor 401 of FIG. 4. Referring toFIG. 6, at block 601, processing logic monitors an operating state and amemory usage of a program. At block 602, in response to determining thatthe program is active, processing logic determines an active memoryusage of the program. At block 603, if it is determined that the activememory usage exceeds a first predetermined threshold, a first memoryusage reduction action is performed at block 604. Meanwhile in responseto determining that the program is inactive, at block 605, processinglogic determines an inactive memory usage of the program. At block 606,if it is determined that the inactive memory usage exceeds a secondpredetermined threshold, a second memory usage reduction action isperformed at block 607.

Referring back to FIG. 4, according to another embodiment of theinvention, system 400 further includes timer logic 402 coupled toprogram state monitor 401 to track the time of certain transactions(e.g., inter-process call (IPC) transaction such as XPC™ transaction ofiOS available from Apple Inc.) performed by a program. If a programinitiates a predetermined type of transactions, timer logic 402 may beused to track how long the program has been active with respect to thattransaction. If the time period exceeds a predetermined threshold, amemory usage reduction action may be performed on the program, such as,for example, forcing the program to transition from an active state toan inactive state. Alternatively, the program may be terminated asdescribed above.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.Process 700 may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware(e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on anon-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination thereof. Forexample, process 700 may be performed by memory manager 101, memorymonitor 102, program state monitor 401, and/or timer logic 402 of FIG.4. Referring to FIG. 7, at block 701, processing logic detects that aprogram transitions from an inactive state to an active state, such as,for example, opening an IPC connection with an operating system. Atblock 702, processing logic tracks a period of time during which theprogram remains active after starting of the transaction. At block 703,if it is determined the period of time exceeds a predeterminedthreshold, a predetermined action (e.g., generating a diagnosis report,memory usage reduction operation, forcing the program to be inactive,terminating the program, or user space reboot, etc.) is performed atblock 704.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for memory management ofa data processing system according to one embodiment of the invention.Process 800 may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware(e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on anon-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination thereof.Referring to FIG. 8, at block 801, processing logic receives a requestto perform a maintenance operation for a data processing system (e.g., areboot while a user is asleep). At block 802, processing logic performsthe maintenance operation. At block 803, processing logic examines oneor more flags or data structures stored at one or more storage locationsof the data processing system to determine whether the flags have beenset to a predetermined value. At block 804 if it is determined that theflags have been set to the predetermined value, processing logicnotifies a user of the data processing system that the maintenanceoperation has been performed at block 805.

Note that some or all of the components as shown and described above(e.g., memory manager 101, memory monitor 102, program state monitor401, and/or timer logic 402) may be implemented in software, hardware,or a combination thereof. For example, such components can beimplemented as software installed and stored in a persistent storagedevice, which can be loaded and executed in a memory by a processor (notshown) to carry out the processes or operations described throughoutthis application. Alternatively, such components can be implemented asexecutable code programmed or embedded into dedicated hardware such asan integrated circuit (e.g., an application specific IC or ASIC), adigital signal processor (DSP), or a field programmable gate array(FPGA), which can be accessed via a corresponding driver and/oroperating system from an application. Furthermore, such components canbe implemented as specific hardware logic in a processor or processorcore as part of an instruction set accessible by a software componentvia one or more specific instructions.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a data processingsystem which may be used with one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, system 1500 may represents any of data processing systemsdescribed above performing any of the processes or methods describedabove, such as, for example, systems 100 and 400 as shown in FIGS. 1 and4. System 1500 can include many different components. These componentscan be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof,discrete electronic devices, or other modules adapted to a circuit boardsuch as a motherboard or add-in card of the computer system, or ascomponents otherwise incorporated within a chassis of the computersystem.

Note also that system 1500 is intended to show a high level view of manycomponents of the computer system. However, it is to be understood thatadditional components may be present in certain implementations andfurthermore, different arrangement of the components shown may occur inother implementations. System 1500 may represent a desktop (e.g., iMac™available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a laptop (e.g.,MacBook™), a tablet (e.g., iPad™), a server, a mobile phone (e.g.,iPhone™), a media player (e.g., iPod™ or iPod Touch™), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a Smartwatch (e.g., Apple Watch™), a personalcommunicator, a gaming device, a network router or hub, a wirelessaccess point (AP) or repeater, a set-top box (e.g., Apple TV™ box), or acombination thereof. Further, while only a single machine or system isillustrated, the term “machine” or “system” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines or systems that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

In one embodiment, system 1500 includes processor 1501, memory 1503, anddevices 1505-1508 via a bus or an interconnect 1510. Processor 1501 mayrepresent a single processor or multiple processors with a singleprocessor core or multiple processor cores included therein. Processor1501 may represent one or more general-purpose processors such as amicroprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), or the like. Moreparticularly, processor 1501 may be a complex instruction set computing(CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC)microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, orprocessor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor 1501 may alsobe one or more special-purpose processors such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a cellular or baseband processor, afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),a network processor, a graphics processor, a network processor, acommunications processor, a cryptographic processor, a co-processor, anembedded processor, or any other type of logic capable of processinginstructions.

Processor 1501, which may be a low power multi-core processor socketsuch as an ultra-low voltage processor, may act as a main processingunit and central hub for communication with the various components ofthe system. Such processor can be implemented as a system on chip (SoC).Processor 1501 is configured to execute instructions for performing theoperations and steps discussed herein. System 1500 may further include agraphics interface that communicates with optional graphics subsystem1504, which may include a display controller, a graphics processor,and/or a display device.

Processor 1501 may communicate with memory 1503, which in one embodimentcan be implemented via multiple memory devices to provide for a givenamount of system memory. Memory 1503 may include one or more volatilestorage (or memory) devices such as random access memory (RAM), dynamicRAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), or other typesof storage devices. Memory 1503 may store information includingsequences of instructions that are executed by processor 1501, or anyother device. For example, executable code and/or data of a variety ofoperating systems, device drivers, firmware (e.g., input output basicsystem or BIOS), and/or applications can be loaded in memory 1503 andexecuted by processor 1501. An operating system can be any kind ofoperating systems, such as, for example, Windows® operating system fromMicrosoft®, Mac OS®/iOS® from Apple, Android® from Google®, Linux®,Unix®, or other real-time or embedded operating systems such as VxWorks.

System 1500 may further include IO devices such as devices 1505-1508,including network interface device(s) 1505, optional input device(s)1506, and other optional IO device(s) 1507. Network interface device1505 may include a wireless transceiver and/or a network interface card(NIC). The wireless transceiver may be a WiFi transceiver, an infraredtransceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a WiMax transceiver, a wirelesscellular telephony transceiver, a satellite transceiver (e.g., a globalpositioning system (GPS) transceiver), or other radio frequency (RF)transceivers, or a combination thereof. The NIC may be an Ethernet card.

Input device(s) 1506 may include a mouse, a touch pad, a touch sensitivescreen (which may be integrated with display device 1504), a pointerdevice such as a stylus, and/or a keyboard (e.g., physical keyboard or avirtual keyboard displayed as part of a touch sensitive screen). Forexample, input device 1506 may include a touch screen controller coupledto a touch screen. The touch screen and touch screen controller can, forexample, detect contact and movement or break thereof using any of aplurality of touch sensitivity technologies, including but not limitedto capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wavetechnologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elementsfor determining one or more points of contact with the touch screen.

IO devices 1507 may include an audio device. An audio device may includea speaker and/or a microphone to facilitate voice-enabled functions,such as voice recognition, voice replication, digital recording, and/ortelephony functions. Other IO devices 1507 may further include universalserial bus (USB) port(s), parallel port(s), serial port(s), a printer, anetwork interface, a bus bridge (e.g., a PCI-PCI bridge), sensor(s)(e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, amagnetometer, a light sensor, compass, a proximity sensor, etc.), or acombination thereof. Devices 1507 may further include an imagingprocessing subsystem (e.g., a camera), which may include an opticalsensor, such as a charged coupled device (CCD) or a complementarymetal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor, utilized to facilitatecamera functions, such as recording photographs and video clips. Certainsensors may be coupled to interconnect 1510 via a sensor hub (notshown), while other devices such as a keyboard or thermal sensor may becontrolled by an embedded controller (not shown), dependent upon thespecific configuration or design of system 1500.

To provide for persistent storage of information such as data,applications, one or more operating systems and so forth, a mass storage(not shown) may also couple to processor 1501. In various embodiments,to enable a thinner and lighter system design as well as to improvesystem responsiveness, this mass storage may be implemented via a solidstate device (SSD). However in other embodiments, the mass storage mayprimarily be implemented using a hard disk drive (HDD) with a smalleramount of SSD storage to act as a SSD cache to enable non-volatilestorage of context state and other such information during power downevents so that a fast power up can occur on re-initiation of systemactivities. Also a flash device may be coupled to processor 1501, e.g.,via a serial peripheral interface (SPI). This flash device may providefor non-volatile storage of system software, including a basicinput/output software (BIOS) as well as other firmware of the system.

Storage device 1508 may include computer-accessible storage medium 1509(also known as a machine-readable storage medium or a computer-readablemedium) on which is stored one or more sets of instructions or software(e.g., module, unit, and/or logic 1528) embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. Module/unit/logic 1528 mayrepresent any of the components described above, such as, for example,memory manager 101 and memory usage monitor 102 of FIGS. 1 and 4, etc.Module/unit/logic 1528 may also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within memory 1503 and/or within processor 1501 duringexecution thereof by data processing system 1500, memory 1503 andprocessor 1501 also constituting machine-accessible storage media.Module/unit/logic 1528 may further be transmitted or received over anetwork via network interface device 1505.

Computer-readable storage medium 1509 may also be used to store the somesoftware functionalities described above persistently. Whilecomputer-readable storage medium 1509 is shown in an exemplaryembodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storagemedium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media(e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated cachesand servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The terms“computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include anymedium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions forexecution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any oneor more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical andmagnetic media, or any other non-transitory machine-readable medium.

Module/unit/logic 1528, components and other features described hereincan be implemented as discrete hardware components or integrated in thefunctionality of hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs orsimilar devices. In addition, module/unit/logic 1528 can be implementedas firmware or functional circuitry within hardware devices. Further,module/unit/logic 1528 can be implemented in any combination hardwaredevices and software components.

Note that while system 1500 is illustrated with various components of adata processing system, it is not intended to represent any particulararchitecture or manner of interconnecting the components; as suchdetails are not germane to embodiments of the present invention. It willalso be appreciated that network computers, handheld computers, mobilephones, servers, and/or other data processing systems which have fewercomponents or perhaps more components may also be used with embodimentsof the invention.

Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presentedin terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations ondata bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the ways used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as those set forth in the claims below, refer to the actionand processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computingdevice, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in anon-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable mediumincludes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g.,computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readablestorage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory(“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices).

The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may beperformed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry,dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although theprocesses or methods are described above in terms of some sequentialoperations, it should be appreciated that some of the operationsdescribed may be performed in a different order. Moreover, someoperations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

Embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof embodiments of the invention as described herein.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. Itwill be evident that various modifications may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium havinginstructions stored therein, which when executed by a data processingsystem, cause the data processing system to perform a method for memorymanagement, the method comprising: monitoring, by a state monitorexecuted by a data processing system, an operating state of a program;in response to determining that the program transitions from an inactivestate into an active state, tracking a period of time during which theprogram remains active; and in response to determining that the timeperiod exceeds a predetermined threshold that is associated with theprogram, performing a predetermined memory usage reduction actionassociated with the program, wherein when the program is active, theprogram maintains an inter-process call (IPC) transaction with a kernelcomponent of an operating system.
 2. The non-transitory machine-readablemedium of claim 1, wherein performing a predetermined memory usagereduction action comprises forcing the program to transition from theactive state to the inactive state.
 3. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method furthercomprises: monitoring activities of the program while the program isactive; and in response to detecting a predetermined event performed bythe program, resetting a counter recording the time period to apredetermined level.
 4. The non-transitory machine readable medium ofclaim 1, wherein the program, in the inactive state, operates and usesmemory.
 5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 4,wherein the program transitions in response to a predetermined type oftransaction performed by the program.
 6. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 5, wherein the predetermined type oftransaction is an inter-process call initiated by the program.
 7. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein theinter-process call is a call to a component of an operating system. 8.The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein thepredetermined memory usage reduction action comprises forcing theprogram to transition from the active state to the inactive state. 9.The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein theprogram in the inactive state operates with less memory than when theprogram is in the active state.
 10. A computer-implemented method formemory management, the method comprising: monitoring, by a state monitorexecuted by a data processing system, an operating state of a program;in response to determining that the program transitions from an inactivestate into an active state, tracking a period of time during which theprogram remains active; and in response to determining that the timeperiod exceeds a predetermined threshold that is associated with theprogram, performing a predetermined memory usage reduction actionassociated with the program wherein when the program is active, theprogram maintains an inter-process call (IPC) transaction with a kernelcomponent of an operating system.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinperforming a predetermined memory usage reduction action comprisesforcing the program to transition from the active state to the inactivestate.
 12. The method of claim 10, further comprising: monitoringactivities of the program while the program is active; and in responseto detecting a predetermined event performed by the program, resetting acounter recording the time period to a predetermined level.
 13. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the program, in the inactive state, operatesand uses memory.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transitionoccurs in response to a predetermined type of transaction performed bythe program.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the predetermined typeof transaction is an interprocess call initiated by the program.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the inter-process call is a call to acomponent of an operating system.
 17. The method of claim 15, whereinthe predetermined memory usage reduction action comprises forcing theprogram to transition from the active state to the inactive state. 18.The method of claim 10, wherein the program in the inactive stateoperates with less memory than when the program is in the active state.